Tension mounts in the South China Sea

China carrier steams towards disputed South China Sea for drills | Reuters

China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission into the South China Sea on Tuesday amid maritime disputes with the Philippines and other neighbours and tension over its plan to set up an airspace defence zone in waters disputed with Japan.

US defies China to fly over disputed Senkaku islands 

B-52s Ignore China No-Fly Zone | Defense Tech

The United States sent two military planes over the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea without informing China which has asserted its control over the airspace, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday. 

The American military will summarily ignore a new policy China has put in place over a string of disputed islands in the East China Sea that demands all foreign aircraft to identify themselves.

The "Air Defense Identification Zone" over the Senkakus Islands (as they are known in Japan) would require that all aircraft, regardless of their purpose or country of origin, report their flight plan, transponder, radio frequency and logo to a Chinese authority before entering that airspace.

Background of Conflict

What’s Happening in the East China Sea? | Brookings Institution

The accumulating evidence would strongly suggest that China will become America’s chief rival in the Pacific; maybe China has already become America’s chief rival. One need look no further than recent developments in the East China Sea, where China and Japan have been arguing about which country has sovereignty over a sprawling chain of small uninhabited islands called the Senkakus in Japan and the U.S. The Chinese have another name for them — the Diaoyou islands. Why would either country argue about uninhabited islands? Because it is believed that they sit on vast natural gas reserves.

Last weekend, the Chinese astonished the U.S. and Japan, very close allies with similar views about Senkaku sovereignty, by declaring that all planes flying in this zone must get China’s permission. They must submit flight plans to Beijing. “If an aircraft doesn’t supply its flight plans,” the Chinese Ministry of National Defense announced, “China’s armed forces will adopt emergency defensive measures in response.”